Without the Foe
by Toastasaurus Rex
Summary: A look into the Mass Effect world, what it is, and what it could have been, had the Protheans destroyed the Reapers.
1. Prolouge

Without the Foe

A perspective on the Mass Effect universe, and what it could have been like,

Without the Reapers.

Prolouge

"Dr. Chakwas is one of the best the Alliance has to offer, her skills combined with Dr. Erad from the Hegemony and we'll have one of the best med bays in either of our fleets. What about a human ground team leader? I have a few marines in mind but I don't really know anyone from the Alliance, rather defeats the purpose of the project if we don't have a few alliance soldiers on the ground team as well."

Captain Anderson nodded, Commander Balak was right, having the Hegemony forces dominate the ground teams of an outreach project wouldn't exactly be productive "We'll want someone from Special Forces to lead the team, even if their squad is rank and file marines. I could probably pull a few strings with Alliance brass to get us an N7"

Balak blinked with both his upper eyes, Anderson had learned that among batarians, that was roughly equivalent to raising a human eyebrow. "Do you really think we need _that _kind of fire power on the Normandy? It's a stealth ship; we're not going to invade planets. We'll be doing recon work."

Anderson smiled "Is that why you're going to bring a squad of Marines aboard? Standard training won't prepare them for black-ops missions. We want someone who can command obedience and respect, as well as teach the marines about covert action. And an N7 is the best way to do that."

Balak reached to the table between them. They were in Anderson's private quarters on Arcturus Station, headquarters of the Human alliance navy. The room was sparse, three chairs, only two of them in use at the moment. Between the Batarian Commander and the Alliance Captain was a small projector table, co-ordinated with a set of projectors in the walls and ceiling to create a holographic image on command. Balak pulled up the alliance N7 database, but when he tried to open the personnel listings he found himself blocked by a message asking for security clearance. "Can't access N7 personnel files." He muttered.

Anderson gestured inward, "Let me take care of it." Balak twisted the display around to face the Captain. Anderson entered his name, rank, ID codes and password, and before him soon laid a list of Special Forces operatives in alliance service. Not just any operatives, only the very best.

The Human Systems Alliance had two different ways to tell an individual's ability and skill in the military. The first was rank, ranging from servicemen and ensigns to Admirals and Majors. This was the true chain of command, dictating who took and gave orders, and what duties each soldier was expected to complete. The second method was the MVC, Military Vocation Code. Every soldier in the alliance fleet had a number and a letter assigned to them, sometimes more than one set, dictating their career path and proficiency. Numbers ranged from 1 to 7, with 7 being the most capable. Letters dictate the solder's chosen field, N being the letter for Special Forces, C being the letter for tactical command staff, like those in charge of ships, and M being the letter for the Alliance Marie corps. Anderson had once bore the mark of N7 during the Turian contact war, but now was considered C6, a skilled ship commander, but not elite.

Anderson scrolled down the list of N7s, seeing test scores, numbers of missions completed with and without losing their cover or making hard contact, number of missions failed. He skimmed only lightly through the names, he recognized only one. "Jonathan…"

Balak looked up from his own projection of the list. He technically wasn't allowed access to _any _alliance personnel files as a member of the Batarian Hegemony, but he was to be the highest ranking Batarian officer aboard the Normandy, and Anderson respected him enough to consider his opinions. "Stone? He's a tech specialist, focuses on completing missions without the enemy ever knowing he was there. 94 percent of the time he does that, but he only has a 95 percent success rate. We need someone who can adapt to failure better than that Anderson."

The captain shook his head "not Jonathan Stone, Jonathan Shepard. I know him, good kid, trustworthy. Father was in the Special Forces as well, we were partnered on a few missions. We were two of the first to hold the title of N7, back in the war."

Balak looked at Anderson oddly, all four eyes blinking in unison. "Anderson, I don't know if we want to pick up some kid just because you knew his old man-"

"It's not just that Balak, Ben and I were good friends, I've met Jonathan in person more than once. Ben says the kid is better than he or I ever was. He was saying they'd need to add and eight to the system for him."

"Anderson, you know I don't mean to disrespect you when I put it this way, but that's a father's pride there, not objective fact."

Anderson looked into Balak's lower eyes, smiling. "Ben Shepard is a factual man Balak, and besides that he's not Jon's actual father. But look at the file, the kid's got twenty-six successful missions under his belt, and he held off a full platoon of Turian-funded raiders on Elysium. Without back-up."

Balak opened the file in its entirety, reading through. "It says he also spearheaded the counter-attack on Torfan. He lost almost his entire unit in the attack. Didn't seem to slow him down though, the mission record say he killed more pirates on Torfan than he did on Elysium. Is that really what we want?"

"Jon can adapt to the failures of a situation, and he can take a team through Hell and back and they won't so much as question him. _That_ is what we want."

Balak leaned back in his chair, a hand on his chin, pondering. "His psychological profile is nearly bare, no talk about his pre-service history except a mention of his parents, a retired N7 and the XO of the Everest."

Anderson nodded "Hannah and Ben aren't his biological parents; they adopted him when he was about twelve. Before that he lived on the streets, was a gang-banger in Vancouver before he ratted out his gang to the police in exchange for immunity. Testified against every gang member he could name or recognize, and not only the members of _his _gang. Jonathan killed the gang wars in Vancouver for six months when he left."

Balak's upper eyes blinked twice, surprised. "How'd he go from testifying against gangs to being adopted by your war buddy?"

"Ben's brother was one of the officers in Vancouver, he gave Jon a safe place during the trials, but he also knew Jon had to get out of the city. Got his brother to adopt him. They'd already had two kids, both a little older than Jon. They figured that going into an honest family might do the kid good in the long run, give him some direction. Hannah always was a softie for the success stories."

Balak paused, looking again at the profile "Says he was first given sentinel training on Jump Zero, got out two years before they closed the program. Powerful Biotic, got a talent with an omi-tool. Received assault rifle training in the Special Forces, But his combat test records aren't great. I mean they're _good_, he's an N7, but with the list he's on they aren't impressive."

"Look again at the Torfan Record. He lost most of his men storming the main compound. That was a suicide mission with only fourteen marines. And yet those soldiers followed him without question. The two other survivors from the team didn't blame Jonathan for their lost teammates in the mission debriefing. They actually credit him with why they lived as long as they did. He inspired them Balak. They followed his lead through that base and came out proud of their commander, even though they'd lost the whole team. That shouldn't have been possible Balak."

The Commander looked through mission reports, Torfan and others. "Shepard's teams are proven to be a lot more potent than they should be, and He doesn't appear to have ever left a group of Marines with complaints about his command. Even after failed missions." Balak paused, a hand on his chin. "It's your choice Anderson, regardless of any reservations of mine. If you think Shepard's our best bet then make the call."


	2. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Arcturus Prime, head of the Systems Alliance, and Command station of the Alliance navy.

Jonathan Shepard stepped off the transport cruiser into the entryway. He was in civvies, though his armor, weapons and several belongings were in a bag on his back. The entry room was large, open. There were a few rows of seats, like airports back on earth. Military headquarters or no, most of the Arcturus population was civilians, and since he wasn't due back in uniform for another sixteen hours, Shepard had taken a civilian shuttle here from leave back home. He was to report to the barracks on the upper floors this evening, or whatever served for it here. Clocks on Arcturus ran on earth time, but the station's rather quick rotation period meant that the natural day-night cycle took about ten hours.

Shepard took a ramp up to the next floor, following it up again to a third, then fourth floor. Five floors up he stopped, crossing an entry room identical to the one he'd landed in. Everywhere he walked there were crowds. Civilians, going to and from the transports, meeting family stepping off, saying goodbye to friends stepping on. They were everywhere, a wall of people with no clue the kind of dangers the galaxy held for those brave enough to face them. Some days Shepard pitied them, some days they were subject to his envy.

Soldiers were also ever present, mostly just standing guard, an avenger or a vindicator in hand. Sometimes they'd mix it up with a Katana or Scimitar shotgun, others a Tempest Smg. Shepard recognized every weapon they carried. He'd trained with most of them, if only in passing. Always good to know what an enemy's, or a friend's, gun could or couldn't do.

The room Shepard entered was at the edge of the primary garrison on the station, it was a greeting room area with a row of desks that visitors and soldiers could use to talk to representatives. Shepard waved one down to give her his name and ID. She admitted him almost immediately through a single doorway on the far end of the room into the Barracks.

Shepard strode through the hallways, either side marked regularly with quarters. This area held open rooms, for off-duty hours. Elsewhere there were the sleeper pods, for each soldier's self-adjusted night. Shepard kept walking until he reached a door who's electronic display showed his ID numbers among the others, the digits engraved on every piece of his armor, his weapons and his dog tags.

The quarters were military sparse, set for three people to use at a time, with space for nine soldiers' possessions and gear. Four other men were in the room, which was irregular considering only three people of the nine who used this room should technically be off-duty at once. Three of them sat at the table in the center, playing cards. Shepard glanced at one, a large, burly Latino man with a row of thin, ellipsis-shaped tattoos down the back of his neck. He held two cards in his hand. _Texas Hold 'em then probably. _

The fourth man was older, late forties it looked, he stood in the back of the room, leaning against a wall and staring into a datapad. It was the captain's uniform that drew Shepard's attention first, and then he recognized the man. Walking over to him so as not to disturb the poker game, Shepard clapped a hand on his shoulder. "Anderson." He said fondly.

"John," Anderson started, looking up suddenly from his data pad. A friendly expression across his features. "Good, you're here early. I wanted to talk before we boarded."

Shepard paused slightly "Before _we_ boarded" he repeated quizzically. "You mean I'm going to be under your command?" That would be the only way Anderson would know Shepard's schedule without someone else telling him. Granted, either scenario was completely possible given that it was David Anderson he was talking to. If Anderson wanted information on someone in the alliance, he got, no questions asked. Having about three times the number of medals you could fit on a uniform had that effect on people.

"Yes, that's what I wanted to talk to you about. I requested you to lead the ground teams on the Normandy, Wanted someone with your skills aboard." Anderson confirmed, "These three marines before you are going to be your squad." He gestured to the poker table. The big Latino seemed to be fuming as one of the other two, a dark-haired man with a wry smile, and two queens, swept toward himself a small pile of a dozen credit chits.

Shepard paused as the game unfolded, and the third marine, a young man with dirty blonde hair was dealing this round. He shuffled carefully, dealing one card at a time around the table before he set three cards out before the deck.

"Normandy, that's the prototype stealth ship isn't it?

Anderson gave a nod beside him, "Designed with the help of a Batarian shipwright, but also made using some Turian design features for…" Anderson gave a shrug. "Who knows why? Maybe they're just testing how they well work."

Shepard nodded. The greatest strengths you got were usually stolen from the enemy at some point. He was glad that it wasn't just Special Forces who understood that. "There's a lot that can be gained from watching your enemies, they're often as useful as they are dangerous."

"Yeah, but on the Normandy, all I see different is that the CIC is on the wrong end of the ship. But I'm not here to chat about the Normandy, it's about her crew." Anderson stood up from the wall, turning to face Shepard directly. "Because it's a joint project, half the crew is going to be Batarian. I'm in charge, but the crew is split about fifty-fifty between Alliance and Hegemony staff. There are going to be two ground teams as well, one will be yours and the other answers to Balak, a commander from the Hegemony."

"Not a problem, I play well with others."

Anderson grinned "I know, but you do need to be warned, there will be members of the crew who aren't fond of humans, and there will probably be Alliance crew who don't like Batarians."

Shepard nodded. His job was to lead; this wasn't exactly outside his skill set. He could deal with it. "And my team?" he gestured to the poker table. The dark haired marine was putting down a decent-sized bet. He wasn't a big guy, but he looked strong, fit. Looked like the type who focused on skills with an omni-tool or a sniper rifle to Shepard. Or both.

"What about them? They all tested well, Jenkins is M5, Vega and Alenko are both M6s. I'm actually surprised I got you this good a squad."

"Better get started then, wouldn't want to waste your hard work getting exactly who you requested." Shepard replied, walking over to the table as the dark haired soldier won another round with a bluff. He used bag as a makeshift stool. "Deal me in." he said calmly, waving inward with two fingers.

The big Tattooed man paused; he cards in his hand mid-shuffle. "Aaa, Sir?" he said quizzically, unsure of what to do.

"Don't stop, I want to play a few rounds before my shift starts." Shepard said with a disarming smile. "Oh, names. Commander Jonathan Shepard."

The dirty blonde was the first one to recover after a moment's silence. "Corporal Richard Jenkins sir." He stared at Shepard for a moment before his face lit up in realization "You were the one who won the Blitz! You're the same Shepard that fought off the raiders on Elysium aren't you?" he asked excitedly.

"That I am" answered Shepard, somewhat embarrassed. He still wasn't used to finding people like Jenkins, so enamored of what he'd done on Elysium. Shepard wondered sometimes what they'd think if they knew what was really going through his head that day.

It was the dark haired marine across the table who found his voice next. "I'm Staff Lieutenant Alenko Commander, it's an honor to meet you sir."

Shepard still smiled slightly as he replied "Don't go talking about honors with me Alenko, all I did was shoot people, and I'd been doing it for quite awhile before that without anyone thinking I deserved a medal for it."

Alenko chuckled at that. Jenkins seemed to still be excited when the third marine spoke up. "2nd Lieutenant James Vega, at your service Commander."

"A pleasure to meet all three of you" responded Shepard. Fraternization step 1: check. Now for the poker. "You dealing or what Vega? Let's get started."


	3. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Palaven. The hot summer air was thick across Cipritine's towering layered boulevards, the Turian Capitol's massive population sliding through the skyscraper-bound streets in hovercars at all altitudes of the air, managed by powerful AI traffic minds all across the Hierarchy.

Garrus Vakarian stood inside the city's primary spaceport, waiting at the edge of shuttle bay 516, watching the traffic soar from tower to tower, pathways weaving in between the almost haphazardly placed skyscrapers.

"Garrus!" He heard the call ring through the air behind him. He knew that voice well.

"Nihlus?" Garrus replied almost softly. Technically it should have been "Major Kiryk", but neither of them was huge on the formalities of command.

"We're leaving in two hours, what are you doing here on the wrong side the complex?"

Garrus paused, turning to face his CO. Nihlus looked at him quizzically, his mandibles held apart from his mouth, his head slightly twitched sideways. Nihlus's crimson scales looked somewhat pale in the bright lighting of the shuttle bay, his off-white markings even more so. "Just saying goodbye to a friend Nihlus, I'll be aboard the shuttle and ready to go within half an hour. Speaking of which, what are _you _doing here, on the wrong side of the complex?"

Nihlus glared at him, his heavy, red and black armor shone slightly in the sunlight coming in through the window before them. "_I _just got here Garrus, You've been standing in the same spot for five minutes at least. Who is it you're waiting for?"

Garrus's mandibles widened slightly, his jaw lowered. The Turian smile. "A friend, Nihlus." He stated simply, no matter how much Garrus liked the man; his personal life was his own. "I'll meet you on the shuttle; she's scheduled to arrive in less than a minute."

Nihlus looked him in the eyes, "_She_?" he asked calmly, mandibles apart. "Fine then, I'll leave you be, but don't be late." And with that, Nihlus left the boarding platform.

Garrus watched the major leave, he was a good officer, and there were very few people in the galaxy Garrus could say he held as much respect for as Nihlus Kiryk.

It wasn't a long wait before the shuttle could be seen coming in to dock, and even less time after that before she stepped off.

Her features were fairly pale, softer than turian scales. Her mouth sat low on her face, with soft, flexible lips instead of Mandibles. Thin discolored ridges crossed her skin, two diagonally on her forehead, and four along the front of her neck. She was the only Quarian on the shuttle, but even if she weren't, Garrus would have recognized Tali'Zorah anywhere.

"Tali" he flagged her down, watching as she turned towards him, smiling. _Damn she's beautiful when she smiles like that._

Behind her walked a smooth, robotic form, curved in appearance, with a bright light for an eye, the Geth platform was Tali's bodyguard assigned by her admiral father on Rannoch. Legion it was called, Tali said it'd been named during some AI work out in human alliance space a few years back. Its deep grey armor had spots and linings of crimson across the body, two high shoulder plates rising from the arms, with tangled, wire tissue forming most of both its arms.

Tali walked to Garrus, her features alight as he asked her "How's the traffic job going?"

Tali reached him, embracing his scaled body as she gave him a kiss on the cheek. "Finished, traffic AI's are easy to program. I wish they'd let me experiment a bit, personality is what makes AI's worth having around."

Garrus let go of the hug. He wanted to fell happy for her job well done, he really did, but it still gave him pause. "Done? Then what are you going to do? Are you headed back to Rannoch?" the final question Garrus couldn't protect from the air of desperation, almost fear it came with. He didn't want Tali on the other side of the Perseus veil when he came back from duty; he wanted her _here_, on Palaven where he knew he could always find her.

She had that look in her eyes that was almost like she was laughing at him. "I'm going to Monath, they're expanding the traffic system there too." She put a hand onto Garrus's neck, her thumb rubbing against the bottom of his mandible. "Don't you worry about me finding a job Garrus, good AI specialists are hard to come by in _Quarian _space; they're practically non-existent in Vol-Heirarchy territory."

Garrus sighed, trying to hide some of his relief. She was always doing that to him, like she wanted to see him squirm. "I thought you weren't going to take more Traffic jobs, you said they bored you?"

"I've always got my work for the geth consensus going on in the background, and I'm getting paid ridiculously well for that too. By the time I'm done with these Palaven jobs, we won't need you to keep going out into the field. Think about it Garrus" She leaned against the window beside him, an arm behind his back. "You get some cush job teaching in the academy while I bring in the big credits. You safe in my bed every night."

Garrus looked her in the eyes, feigning surprise. "I for one, still think I should meet your family before we go there Tali." He slid an arm behind her head, his hand resting on her shoulder. "I know neither of my parents would be comfortable knowing I was sleeping with a girl they'd never met."

Tali gave him that wry, mischievous smile that always got him nervous. "And it's double that for my father. How long did you sign up for this deployment?"

Garrus truned upward, his eyes tracking the ceiling in though "Six months." He said unsure, "yeah, six months, I timed it to the Quarian holiday season."

Tali gave him a playful slap on the shoulder. "You kissass. That's perfect, we'll go to Rannoch for the holidays then, and you can meet the family." She stood from the wall, pulling him up by the arm. "Will that satisfy your nerves Garrus?"

He gave her a Turian smile, his arm still round her neck, holding her close "Yeah, Tali, that'll soothe my nerves." He looked at her, a feeling of longing filling his gut. He didn't want to leave her embrace. But he knew he had to, he was running out of time, and Saren wasn't going to wait on him. So he let go, holding Tali by the hands as he faced her. "I love you Tali," he began to say, pausing, unsure.

"I love you too Garrus" She returned, giving him that smile he always found so beautiful. "Come back in one piece for me. I'll be waiting."


	4. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Kaiden hit the hard ground behind a piece of furniture, a bench of some sort maybe, he hadn't had time to look. The hail of bullets clashed onto the rickety structure, but the solid metal held firm. Kaiden could hear the constant ringing of rifle fire through his helmet's dampeners, and could see Shepard further back as he leaned up against the metal surface behind him.

Shepard stood a few dozen yards behind the front lines of the skirmish, holding back to give orders over the headset, as well as to rain covering fire. Shepard held in his hands some form of civilian hunting rifle, heavily modified. It was semi-automatic, pumping of shots one by one across the battlefield.

They were in a large training room, strategic cover strewn about for practice, their weapons, omni-tools, and biotic amps all given special "softening" mods to avoid any wounds that could hinder performance in the field.

Kaiden gripped his predator pistol tightly, the cool metal a comfort after all the time he'd spent with it. It's double-barreled appearance a constant among the constant changing of command, crew and station.

He stood partially over the edge of his bench, popping off three shot sequentially at one of the Batarian marines three or four yards over. His shields flashed and died when the third shot hit, and Kaiden stood full as his biotics lit up around him.

Kaiden was used to, by now, the adrenaline rush he always felt when he used his powers, but he still noticed it every time. He felt a strong pair of opposing mass effect fields forming into a sphere around his palm, and he bound them together, launching the warp field across the gap and striking the marine from above. The man had tried to dodge to the side at the last minute, but that only meant the warp field struck him in the chest instead of the head. His armor would be releasing a minor paratactic shock to numb him now, Kaiden thought absently as he ducked back behind cover, a wave of fire crossing the gap to soar above his head.

The bursts of fire suddenly ceased in reaction to a report from Shepard's hunting rifle behind him. Kaiden could hear one of the batarians cry out in response. Softeners or no, getting shot was bound to hurt like hell.

Kaiden rolled to a small decorative wall to his left, turning right to view the battlefield as he fired potshots. Vega was off to his left now that he'd turned towards the wall, spraying quick bursts of fire from his Valkarie assault rifle, trying to keep Balak in cover while Jenkins flanked them to Alenko's right. Shepard was moving forward to join his squad, but he was moving slowly, keeping the pressure on the enemy team.

Kaiden pulled the trigger of his weapon twice more before he noticed the thermal clip was at capacity. Pulling back the top of his weapon, Kaiden ejected the small red and black cylinder, and it fell to his feet steaming as another loaded into the chamber. Turning back, he saw Shepard ducking into cover between him and Vega. Kaiden finally remembered the name of that hunting rifle, a Mattock, as Shepard ejected a thermal clip from its chamber, loading in a few more as his shields recharged.

Suddenly the fire flying above Alenko's head seemed to cease, but the sounds of discharging shots bouncing around the room for a moment until Kaiden realized what was happening. Jenkins.

Kaiden stood and rushed to his right, firing four shots at the Batarians with a single hand, watching as a spray of fire pinned Jenkins behind a bench across the rubble-strewn field. Kaiden stayed hunched over, trying to run as much behind cover as possible. Kaiden heard the roaring of Shepard and Vegas' guns behind him. The call of the Valkarie rifle still sounded, but Shepard's semi-automatic rifle bark was replaced by the near-constant roaring of some foreign weapon Kaiden couldn't recognize. He blotted it out, Jenkins was his focus now.

Firing more shots to his left as he ran, Kaiden watched as Jenkins tried to shoot from the side of the bench, throwing out an automatic spray of bullets from his Avenger. His shields gave out under the fire of Balak's avenger, and a few shots landed on Jenkin's chest plate as he fell sideways, back behind cover.

Kaiden was getting close; he ejected the clip from his pistol before going onto one knee behind a rectangular piece of rubble of some sort. Kaiden held out his left hand, triggering his omni-tool. The glowing orange halo about his fist was there immediately. Kaiden triggered an attack command: Overload. Balak's Shields suddenly flared, the shock from Kaiden's attack causing them to overpower themselves. Balak hit the ground as Kaiden fired two shots in his direction. One of the two Batarians standing turned and fired a vindicator at Kaiden. The first burst splashed against his shields, and Kaiden dodged the second be dropping down below. He heard a cry from Vega off behind him, and a voice on his radio.

"Vega's hit! Repeat, Vega's hit. Alenko, I want you to get Jenkins out from that bench, I'll keep them occupied."

Kaiden looked back over his shoulder. Vega was out of cover by a few feet, his shotgun out, but he was on the ground, paralyzed. Dead as far as the exercise was supposed to go. Kaiden also saw Shepard, a strange, yellow and silver rifle in his hands, standing up, his shields taking heavy fire. Kaiden saw Shepard's omni-tool flash as his shields formed a deep yellow suit of translucent armor around his form. Shepard's weapon flashed, Kaiden turned and ran towards Jenkins, trying to stay low.

A glance to the left, Kaiden saw Balak back out, then saw him drop back after Shepard's shots left a few dents in his helmet, out for the count. Kaiden was almost to Jenkins, he started to slow, his gun coming up to face the enemy. Then he saw the grenade.

It was a small, cylindrical device, arcing to land behind Jenkin's position. Kaiden called out running. "Jenkins Get out of there! Grenade!"

Jenkins reacted too slowly, looking about as the sphere closed in on his position. Kaiden's legs slid out before him as he slid purposefully up to his squad mate. Kaiden's eyes and arms were raised, time seeming to slow as he saw the grenade coming towards him, and his biotics flared into a barrier around the two of them.

Kaiden's eyes closed from the strain, he could hear the gunfire outside the bubble, muted. He could feel the impacts they made as the two batarian soldiers tried to pierce the protective shield. When the grenade went off, Kaiden almost lost consciousness from the impact of a thousand shards of shrapnel, even ones from a softened "training" grenade seemed to strike his barrier with the force of a hurricane. More closely, Kaiden could hear two steps, inside the barrier, Jenkins presumably, and Kaiden hear his weapon flaring to life, and the strange, but strainless feel of the bullets passing harmlessly out from inside the barrier.

When his eyes opened, it was over. One marine had dropped from Jenkins' fire; the other Kaiden saw running back as Shepard sent a warp field flying into him. Kaiden's barrier still stood strong as he got up, extinguishing it with a heavy exhale. He heard the computerized voice from all around "Hegemony unit, defeated. Shutting down training exercise."

Kaiden saw Vega, Balak, Charn and the others rising, the inhibitors disabled. Shepard turned towards his downed soldier, his tech armor fading and shutting down "What the hell was that Vega?" he asked angrily, placing his assault rifle onto his back next to the tan hunting rifle.

Vega faced his CO, an expression of regret on his features. "Sir, I…"

Shepard pointed in his face, scolding "You ran into enemy fire, what the hell is wrong with you?" when the larger man didn't respond, Shepard backed off, speaking more softly, though still with an air of punishment. "Had we been facing any real enemies, Turian, Krogan, Salarian, Rachni or _anyone _who knew what they were doing, you wouldn't have survived ten seconds in the open. Anyone with a gun will rip you to shreds if you take them head on, that is why you _stay with your squad, _and that is why you _follow your damn orders_!"

Vega's eyes were on his boots, but he was able to muster the courage to at least respond. "Yes sir, Commander."

"Dismissed." Called the commander loudly, turning away from Vega as he did so. "Balak, Alenko, I want to talk to you two in the debriefing room."


	5. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Balak turned, following Shepard outside of the training room. After a day's work together, Balak was actually getting to like the man. He was a skilled soldier, no doubt about that; Balak still had a headache from where the man's Phaeston had scored a few headshots. Shepard walked into a small side room from the hallway, with a set of windows giving view of the empty void around the station.

Shepard's face was in his hands, fingers rubbing his temples. "Good Lord, Vega ran right out into _my _line of fire, I barely avoided taking him out, but I know I shredded his shields. Thanks for taking him down Balak, better if you hit him than if it's my fault, or even worse, if the tactic works."

Balak's mouth opened in a smile. "Of course Commander, I was happy to."

Shepard's hands went to the table, his mouth forming a small, wry little smirk as he turned to his soldier. "Good work out there Alenko, you had Orun down before he even used a full clip. And nice save with Jenkins."

Alenko nodded at the praise, "Thank you commander" he paused, "I take it you wanted to see me for more than that sir?"

"I did, it's about Vega." Shepard was staring a few windows on the outer wall, literally staring into space. "Records say you served with him on the SSV Toronto for three months, do you know what happened to him?"

Alenko paused at that, unsure. "I only met James in passing sir; there were a lot of marines on the ship." he continued hesitantly "What do you mean by 'what happened to him'?"

The Commander continued to stare out the window for a moment, Balak remained silent in his chair. He didn't know what Shepard was talking about any more than Alenko. "Six years ago," Shepard began slowly, almost unsure "The colony of Akuze went silent overnight. A ship was sent to the system to investigate. They found no hostile ships in orbit, ruling out Pirate attack as the cause of the blackout. They figured it was a technical failure, even though the colony still couldn't reach them on short-range communications. They followed regulations and sent down a platoon of marines to investigate." Shepard paused, his lips pursed. "Five Kodiak shuttles went down, each loaded with a dozen armed marines. It was on the descent that they saw how bad it was. The colony was in ruins, most of the structures either turned over or broken. Some were ripped in half; others had whole walls or roofs melted away by acid. They spent twenty minute searching the ruins, finding bodies, wreckage, and no survivors, no signs of life beyond a few household plants. Most of the bodies they found were also melted by acid, or they were ripped apart. "

Balak Grimaced. Acid wasn't a weapon anyone would use in firearms, easier just to throw together a mass accelerator and an ammo block. He knew where this was going.

"They were only about halfway through the ruins when they were found. Thresher maws, giant creatures, think subterranean Caterpillars the size of blue whales. Now imagine a half-dozen of the monsters, rising from the sand around you, spitting waves of acid and screaming so loudly that it feels like your head is splitting open. With trusted comrades being eaten or melted all around you, some shooting the monsters to no visible effect, others just running for their lives only for the creatures to appear right below them." Shepard described with a visible shudder.

Alenko was wide-eyed; he was probably trying to picture it too. "That sounds like a pretty solid vision of hell."

"And we can only imagine. Vega was one of only seven survivors from the ground teams, and he's the only one still in military service. Four are in mental hospitals, _all_ were given honorable discharges." Shepard said, not going into further details on the massacre. Balak was grateful.

But there was one thing he had to know. "Commander, why are you telling us this?"

Shepard looked Balak in the eyes, his expression grave. "You're an XO, you should know when any members of the crew have problems, and Kaiden" He turned to the Lieutenant. "You're on the team with him. I told Jenkins Before the exercise because I wanted Jenkins to try and work with him, be his friend. I was hoping it wouldn't come up, but…" he trailed off slightly. "After the simulation, I'm worried about him."

"What I don't understand, is that he's still in the navy after he went through that." Alenko said softly. Balak could tell the lieutenant felt sorry for Vega, and so did Balak for that matter.

But he still knew the answer "Because Vega feels like he has nowhere else to go. He lost everything that mattered to him, he can't go back to live a life on some calm colony, he has no reason to care. And besides that, he'll probably flash back to Akuze if he ever sees another prefabricated building in his life."

Shepard nodded, looking out the window again, hands back to his temples. It was Kaiden who spoke first. "If he's PTSD, he hides it pretty well."

"I don't think that's it, I think he's more depressed than anything else." Shepard said without turning from the window. "He doesn't care if he lives or dies; his own life means nothing to him." Shepard shook his head, burying it in his hands. "I guess I should be grateful that he hasn't tried to shoot himself yet."


	6. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Hackett's office was a sparse affair, a single desk, two chairs before it and one chair behind. Anderson stepped into the room saluting, standing at attention.

Hackett was reading a report on his datapad it looked like, sitting at the desk, holding it before him. Anderson waited a minute before pressing his arrival somewhat. "Admiral." He stated formally, a greeting, and a message of his presence.

Hackett looked up from the datapad immediately. "Captain, good." He gestured to one of the chairs, continuing as Anderson took a seat. "The Normandy is fit for launch, and your shakedown run has been planned. You'll take the ship to Eden Prime, in the Utopia system. There, planetary scanners will test the stealth systems. You are to move at all possible speed while en route to test the Tantalus drive core, and to run the stealth system as long as possible while in-system to learn its capabilities."

David nodded, fairly standard shakedown for a prototype ship. Test whatever new features that are present, move from system to system through the relay network. But not quite. "Shakedown flights usually move between several systems, and there have to be better test facilities than an archeological boom-town turned agri-colony like Eden Prime. Colonies with more sophisticated sensor systems, Like Elysium or Horizon. What am I going to be doing at Eden Prime sir?"

Hackett smiled, "I see command hasn't changed you. Ten years ago, they dug up a Prothean information storage device of some sort on Eden Prime, hailed as the greatest scientific discovery our time until they found out it was pretty much empty. The only notable information they got out of it, beyond things we already knew, was some new form of heat storage that made Thermal clip technology more viable in weapon manufacturing, and the schematics for the Thanix cannon, which we needed the Quarians and their AIs to decipher for us, so they then sold it to every other major government in the galaxy. Along with the Thermal clip data they'd stolen from our systems."

Anderson paused. Hackett wasn't telling him anything he didn't know. "Yes, the dig site on Eden Prime was shut down eight years ago, they decided that there was nothing left to unearth."

Hackett nodded curtly, "Officially, yes. But there are always archeologists with spare time and colleges with grant money. There was an excavation project that began eighteen months ago, they unearthed _something_ on the ground, but Eden Prime doesn't have the kind of facilities we want analyzing Prothean artifacts. I'm sending the Normandy under cover of a shakedown run to retrieve this artifact, and the science team with it."

"When do we leave admiral?"

[Begin writer's notes because I don't know how to write them outside of the document]

Sorry this one took awhile, I was off the grip, no writing and no internet for four days. On the bright side, I came up with a character arc for Alenko while I was gone, and I decided on something fun I'll do once I finish the story.

For the record, Without the Foe takes place during the same time period as Mass Effect 1, not later. I'm going to start on chapter 6 as soon as I post this one, I want to make up lost time, even though I should be reading Catcher in the Rye before the 20th. I hate you Honors English. You and your summer assignments.

Speaking of which, I probably shouldn't be feeling guilty about rate of publishing because It'll get _way _worse than this during the school year. Just a warning. I want to write this story, I really do.


	7. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Shepard set foot aboard the Normandy, his squad behind him. Walking through the Airlock

And he was quite impressed.

To Shepard's left was a tight cockpit with three seats, only one currently occupied. A short, wiry thin man with a thick auburn beard and a baseball cap sat in the pilot's seat, turned halfway towards the rest of the ship to see the new arrivals. He quickly turned back to his control panel as if he'd never left it.

To the right was a long cylindrical hallway, with seats on either side showing controls of weapons, shields, power spread and more. Beyond the hall the room spread about, forming a wide, open CIC. In the center stood a raised platform above the galaxy map, a holographic projection of the Milky Way galaxy. Around the map lie a set of control panels, stations for the navigator, communications specialist, and others. To each far side of the room sat a short row of escape pods, four to a wall.

Behind the Galaxy map, Shepard could see three doors. One in the center, directly behind the Map, carried the label "Elevator" above its puzzle-piece frame. The other two, along the far right and left sides of the room, weren't labeled.

"Hello Staff Commander Shepard, May I show you the ship?"

The voice came from all around him, synthesized, feminine, but friendly. Across the hallway from him was a small stand held off of the ground at about waist height. The stand consisted of a black screen about the size of a plate, and was projecting above itself an image of a sphere atop a sloping neck, a faint ring floating just below where the sphere and tower met. This image was constructed of faint blue orbs, floating holographically above the stand. Several bright lines formed along a vertical area of the sphere, waxing and waning to match the synthesized voice.

"The SSV Normandy is a five-floor ship built within Batarian hegemony space" The voice explained as Shepard watched the projection. "It is fully equipped with an array of four Thanix-class Particle cannons, the most of any ship in either the Alliance, or Hegemony fleets of Cruiser class or smaller. In addition, there is an array of Javelin missiles on the cargo bay deck, as well as regulation GUARDIAN defense systems."

"Excuse me?" Shepard questioned the image quizzically "Who are you?"

He got the distinct impression that the voice would have been smiling at him if it came with an actual mouth "I, Commander, am EDI. Enhanced Defense Intelligence. I am the Normandy's on-board Artificial intelligence. I assist the crew by coordinating all communications, as well as dealing with any and all tasks usually assigned to VI delegation. I also provide analysis and advice whenever it seems prudent."

Shepard paused, surprised. Artificial intelligences were illegal for personal ownership throughout both hegemony and Alliance space, with similar restrictions being present in Citadel and Vol-Hierarchy territory as well. Technically, any organization exclusively owned and operated by the Systems Alliance _was _permitted to use AIs as they wished, but that was a privilege rarely used as a result of underlying suspicion throughout Human culture.

Shepard, on the other hand, had a healthy respect for AIs. "Glad to have you aboard EDI, a tour would be great, if it's no trouble."

"Of course, commander." She began calmly. Shepard looked back to the team.

Alenko was looking into the cockpit, apparently talking to the pilot. Vega was already walking down the hall, asking directions of a man who's uniform put him as the navigator. And Jenkins stood behind him, looking down the hallway in awe.

"To your left is the bridge, where the pilot, one Jeff Moreau, flies the ship from. To the right is the primary Combat information center, with the Galaxy Map navigation tool, as well as stations for the communications and navigation specialists." EDI explained, "The command platform above the galaxy map is the Commanding Officer's post, where Captain Anderson will command the ship from."

Shepard began walking down the hallway, following the left side of the room. The holographic galaxy map spun slowly about in its place. Vega was entering the elevator now, and Shepard could see Alenko coming down the walkway with Jenkins.

EDI's projection appeared on another stand next to the leftmost door, continuing to address Shepard. "The central doorway is the elevator, allowing access to all five floors of the Normandy. This is floor two, the combat deck." The door opened as Shepard walked up to it.

Before him was a mostly empty room, the left half taken up by a table surrounded with sound-proof glass, the right half plain metal, with a doorway about two-thirds of the room's length down. The Far end held a second door; this one opened before Shepard was even halfway across the room, as EDI's image was projected from a platform attached to the right wall. "This is the conference and debriefing room, the table also retracts into the floor to allow for conference FTL communications. Beyond this room is my AI core, where my servers are located." The room beyond the doorway was filled with large computers it looked like, no screens, only a single user-interface, presumably for maintenance of some sort.

"So You run on the computers here?" Shepard asked, walking over to the small terminal.

"Essentially, though it is more apt to say that I _am_ these machines, and my functions and processes run on them."

Shepard paused, he turned back to where EDI's image was being projected, attentively turning its vertical array of lines, the projection's "Face" more or less, to follow him as he walked about the room. "You're not much like the other AIs I've talked to."

EDI's response was quick, but there seemed to be a momentary pause, "I did not realize that you had experience with AIs commander."

Shepard nodded "Three years ago I worked with a troop of Quarian marines to take out a Pirate base right on the edge of the Peruses Veil. They were in Quarian space, but they only attacked Human and Batarian shipping lanes on the other side of the Veil. The Marines were supported by a Geth strike force, one Prime, a few standard platforms." Shepard paused, continuing when EDI did not reply. "You're much more articulate than the Geth. More conversational."

EDI seemed to paused, but she responded "I've never communicated with another AI before, even in development, by the time I went active I was alone." The tone of her voice was strange, even with the synthesizers taken into account. Was that longing in her voice? Or jealousy? Or something entirely foreign to the human mind? Shepard did what he could to stop that final thought. Those kinds of suspicions would only prejudice him against EDI, and for no wrong doing on her part.

So he continued, walking through the door on his left, facing the Normandy's bridge now. EDI responded with a hint of gratitude in her voice as the door opened to the next room. "This, Commander, is the Tactical Planning Center, though the crew have coined it as "The War Room"."

The chamber was circular and two-floored, the higher section with the doors being a ring around the central pit, which, in turn, was an area built in a ring around a large circular holographic projector table. The entire room was dark, with a certain sense of foreboding. Three entrances to the room existed one he had just exited from, another a bit more than 90 degrees to his right, connecting to the final door from the CIC if Shepard's sense of direction was holding true, and a Third pointing strait to the ship's stern. The lower area had four small stairwells leading to it, spaced evenly about the space, with support beams for the massive overhead section of the projection mechanism between every path. Beyond the third door Shepard could see a small room with holographic systems and a terminal. A communications blister if he ever saw one.

"What do we do in here, EDI?"

"The War Room includes a fully functional tactical holographic projector mechanism, made to plan operations with from ground or air perspective. It can also be used to project the models of any and all know starships and fighters, with any new models easily added through basic scanning. More advanced scans will allow us to plot out the Ship's interior layout, though doing so will require time as well as the deactivation of stealth systems." The projector went alight, presumably as an example from EDI, showing overhead views of a small colony under assault.

It took Shepard only a few moments to recognize the Skillian Blitz footage from Elysium. Raiders, mostly Turian, though Human, Batarian, Krogan, Drell and other species dotted their ranks, were surging between the outer buildings, coming up on the perimeter of marines, distracted by a small squad already at their doorstep. It was a single figure off to the side of the Skirmish who's fire flared in shot-by-shot bursts, striking down raiders left and right, drawing an automatic rifle as their attention shifted to the N7 operative who'd only even been on Elysium during layover at the end of his shore leave.

EDI awoke him from his distraction "In addition, there is a Quantum entanglement array in the side room, allowing the crew of the Normandy lag-free communications with Arcturus Prime." She paused for a moment, before saying "Not the most useful system while we're _docked_ with Arcturus Prime, but it should be helpful in the future. The final door leads back to the CIC commander, if you want a tour of the other floors then please ask, and I will be happy to accommodate."

And with that, EDI grew silent, almost like she left. Shepard took the doorway and the small hallway that followed from it to the CIC. When he exited, he found that Jenkins and Alenko were no longer on the deck. He turned right, toward the elevator. Once inside, he checked the floors.

Top floor was labeled "The Loft", listed to include officers' cabins. Second floor was where he stood now, the Combat deck. Third floor was Crew deck, with a medical bay, sleeper pods and the brig according to the listings. Lastly were the engineering and cargo bay floors at the bottom of the ship.

After a moment of indecision, Shepard hit the key for the crew deck. Time for the crew to meet their XO.

[Begin author's notes, if someone could PM me how to put these separate from the document, that'd be really really nice of them.]

Again, I feel bad about the delays. Had to finish catcher in the Rye (Fuck you Holden Caulford), then Raisin in the sun (I actually really enjoyed A Raisin in the Sun), the I moved (From the only house I've ever remembered living in btw, this'll take some getting used to), but Until the 20th I don't have much to do except write, and it's the [checks] 8th? Wow, thought it was later in the month than that. I should get two or three more chapters off before school starts, then I might actually get on a regular schedule of all things.

Oh yeah, the chapter. I like EDI, she's interesting to have around, and her relatuionships with the squad and crew members, particularly Joker and Shepard, are going to be interesting to explore. Also, this version of the Normandy is just a little bigger than the SR2. When in doubt about the layout, assume SR2 in ME3. I should give you guys the tour of the Crew deck in the next chapter, and the Loft should be covered before they reach Eden Prime, or not long after, so those are the big changes. Oh yeah, and there's a missile bay on the cargo deck floor, but I'm not likely to take them down there. Just doesn't seem likely to happen.


	8. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

The Carrier Open Palm slid through the ocean of space like a knife through water, her great form soaring towards the massive relay at the edge of the Trebia system. Garrus stood in the cargo bay, watching as the stars seemed to drift lazily by. The Palm was using FTL drives to reach the Mass Relay, alongside the other ships in the fleet. Four cruisers, The Axe head, War Horn, Hidden Dirk, and Blade Tip, formed the bulk of the detachment, while this Carrier held the fleet's fighters and invasion forces, and her Sister ship, the dreadnought Shaking Fist carried their real firepower.

Supporting them were a dozen frigates, Crimson scale, Sharpened Talon, Spirit's Hammer, Age of Iron, and others. It was one helluva fleet.

Garrus stood in the Open Palm's sparring room, his eyes to the viewport. The windows were made of powerful clear alloys, but were built to be armored during combat none the less. The room was empty, save for Garrus.

Off duty, he was still armored, and his weapons sat before him on a workbench in the corner. Technically, he should have been tinkering in the armory, or even in his off-duty quarters, but Garrus had always enjoyed the peace and quiet of the sparing room whenever it went unused, and besides, the Armory would be full of soldiers, as it always was on this ship. Not even disciplined Turian troops either, but the Arterius brothers' pet projects, their "special delivery".

Garrus's gut sunk at the thought of their mission. Their job was not going to be quick, or clean or even honorable. This was a job almost better suited for Proxy forces, Pirates and slavers to be paid for, like the Skyllian Blitz, not for an entire fleet with a Major Admiral at its head. This must have been a damned important payload to the Primarchs if they were willing to send Saren in with this much firepower behind him.

The sound of the door opening was soft, though it may as well have boomed with the volume of a gunshot for the previous moments' silence. Garrus turned only slightly to see who was coming in. if he was lucky, they were Turian.

The soldier who walked through the door had tan scales, purple-blue markings in small pieces on his mandibles. He was armored, but held no weapons except the usual carmfex sidearm. Garrus had one on his hip as well; it was expected, even aboard your own ship.

"_Captain _Vakarian" he said, turning towards Garrus with a friendly face "I thought I might find you here. Always got to have your hands on that Raptor yours, even if you're not shooting it."

Garrus turned to his partner, "Lantar, you know I don't like it when my own teammates call me by rank, please? Just Garrus."

Lantar shrugged, continuing. "I'm glad for you Garrus, you deserved the promotion. You're a good soldier and I'm grateful to serve with you."

Garrus, nodded, taking the compliment. "Thank you Sidonis. And for what it's worth, I'm glad to serve with you."

Lantar stretched his arms, bending down to touch his toes. "You want to go for a round? We're already in here, so we might as well."

Garrus smiled, setting his rifle carefully down on the bench to be reassembled later. "Okay, but no biotics this time, hand to hand only."

"Well where's the fun in that?" Lantar responded, a small blue aura emanating from his left hand "If I get in a fight, I'm sure going to use them, and if you get in a fight with another biotic then they're sure going to use them. We might as well train for it."

"Maybe, but I'm tired of you taking me down from across the sparing mat when I don't even get an omni-tool, or trying to hit you only to jam my wrist against your barriers. No Biotics."

"Fair enough"

And so they began, Lantar charged in for a tackle, Garrus rolling to his left, turning as Sidonis did the same. Garrus took a step closer, throwing a half-formed right fist towards Lantar's neck. The left hand parried reflexively, crossing his body, leaving him unable to stop Garrus's left arm from striking him in the gut, or from Garrus's right leg from coming up to kick him in the midriff. After a backwards stumble, Lantar came back at him, hands up protectively, lashing out in quick strikes.

The fight dragged on for a few minutes, until Garrus's shoulders were sore from blocking shots, and his stomach ached from a few well placed blows. Garrus dodged low from a punch, kicking for Lantar's ankles with his left leg, while punching Lantar's stomach with his right fist.

Both shots connected, and Sidonis hit the ground momentarily afterwards.

Garrus got up breathing heavily, offering Lantar a hand. The second soldier took the offering, sitting down on a nearby bench when they were finished, simply watching the windows.

Neither said anything for a moment, both watching the star field before them, a foreign starscape, they'd already hit the Mass relay to the Atheon cluster, still in the heart of Vol-Hierarchy space. That would change at the next relay.

It was Garrus to find his voice first. "We'd better get ready, Nihlus will want us both prepped for battle once we hit Alliance space."

Lantar sighed, "Yeah, he will." Standing as Garrus crossed over to his weapons. ""I'll see you in the quarters then." And with that, the man left, leaving Garrus alone reassembling his rifles.

Garrus didn't watch the time as he closed up the inner workings of his weapons, or as he sealed on their barrels and scopes. But when his gaze rose from his weapon, holstering it upon his back, the window showed not empty space, but a relay.

The Mass Relay floated before the Open palm, massive, defiant to this civilization and its pathetic size in comparison to the great empires it had connected. It was shaped in a circular fashion at one end, but the circle was unclosed, having two strait rods protruding from the edges towards the connecting relay. Within the circle lie a pair of spinning rings connected to the Relay itself, spiraling and orbiting about a massive Spherical Mass Effect field.

The giant artifacts had once, like so many other ruins and technology throughout the galaxy, been attributed to the long-extinct Prothean Empire, which had disappeared over Fifty Thousand Years prior. It had been discovered only recently, within the last century, that prothean technology was at an inadequate level to construct such massive and powerful tools, and not long after it was realized that the Protheans had discovered the Mass Relays much as modern civilization had, and that they had, credited the Relays as constructions of the Inusannon, an immensely powerful race now believed to have died out in a prolonged war of attrition with the Protheans that ended with the deaths of both their empires.

With weapons assembled, Garrus walked from the sparing room, hurrying to his squad's Quarters. When he got there, he found Nihlus working on his shotgun, a long, silver, tubular weapon that lacked a stock, forcing the wielder to hold it apart from their body completely.

"Garrus, good. We just passed into the Kite' Nest. This is Human Alliance territory, and we've got an hour and a half before we reach the relay to the Exodus Cluster." Nihlus explained "I wouldn't be surprised if we were attacked before then, so I want you both to stay sharp, armed and near the hanger bay. If any attack comes, I want the three of us either on the first boarding shuttle, or firing the first shots at enemy boarding parties, agreed?"

Both Garrus and Lantar spoke in unison "Yes Sir, Major Kryik"

Their leader gave them a grin, the ridges above his eyes rising slightly. "And don't let any of these damn Beserkers get in your way, We'll be one of the infiltration teams on Eden Prime, so we shouldn't have to work with them long."

[And you know the drill by now: Writer's notes.]

This chapter was actually really disconcerting to write, not because of anything that happens in it, but because I actually checked a map of the Mass Effect galaxy with all the relay paths etc marked out. And damn, Palaven is kind of dangerously close to Earth. There's a codex entry or something that mentions a Turian-Human war might lay waste to a significant portion of the galaxy, but I have to call bullshit on it now, it'd just utterly destroy the same fifth of the galaxy both planets occupy: they're close enough to throw rocks at eachother from their respective moons. Or Dreadnought shells if they want to just ruin someone's day somewhere, and some time.

I also now realize that the Batarian homeworld is, assuming it's fairly deep in the Terminus systems, or at least not within stone-throwing distance of Virmire or Horizon, pretty far from Earth, to the point that if they share borders and nobody except maybe the Quarians are in that region of space, then they would have to control about half the galaxy, and that doesn't really work for what I'm trying to do. So yeah, there's a bit of a problem there that I can't really solve, though I guess I could just say that they control whatever fraction of the galaxy they do based not on pie chart logic, but on actual number of systems or planets in their control. Either way, let this be a lesson to you all: Do your homework before you make plans, because it can come back to bite you in the ass. The Citadel is also really close to palaven, but on the other side of the local cluster, kind of squeezing Vol-Hierarchy territory into a vice grip (Oh come on, that's not a spoiler, I was too blunt about it last chapter). Also, Tuchanka is really poorly positioned in relation to what I want to do with the krogan, but I guess I could make some excuses. Whatever, I'll figure it out. Or just ignore the Cannon Galactic geography, that'd work too. I already made the SSV into the SR2 for no reason except that I thought it'd be more fun, and also because I like EDI. And I don't intend the Normandy to get blown up any time soon. I still reserve the right to do so, but I don't think I will.

You know, while I'm at artistic license changes without a real excuse or reason, I did make the Batarians good guys (without a caste system btw) and Quarian-Geth peace before I came up with logical reason why. Which I have now, and will bring up in the story, but they are contrived.

Oh yeah, also: I lied about the crew deck thing last time, figured I needed to talk about Garrus a little, and I have a bit of spacing that I'm going to use for the next few chapters, fitting chapters on the Normandy around the not-Normandy Chapters, which no, will not exclusively be about Garrus. Crew deck is _next_ chapter, and the Loft won't be explored until at least after Eden Prime.

Other than that, beserkers means exactly what you think it means and I did in fact write this chapter in one or two days, because, as it turns out, I feel weird surfing the web to a lot of sites from the desk my computer got moved to for some reason, but writing just comes naturally and comfortably here. Hm. Weird, but great for you guys I guess.


	9. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

The Mess hall was mostly just a table and chairs in the center of the crew deck, a small island of quiet in a busy ship. The Normandy had taken off from Arturus Prime three hours prior, and Kaiden was still getting used to the ship. He sat at the end of the table, his left shoulder pointing out to the empty crossroads between the Med bay behind him, hallway laden with sleeper pods off left, and the brig in front.

Near the center of the table, across from each other, was a pair of Alliance crew members from Engineering, a man and a woman, along with the batarian Medical chief, Dr. Erad, beside the Scottish male Engineer. "Come on, Gabby, the trip to Eden Prime is _not _some conspiracy theory trap, or anything but a simple shakedown run."

"I'm telling you Kenneth, there's something off about this whole flight. Captain Anderson is holed up in the loft instead of commanding the ship, and besides, we should be testing the Normandy against some powerful, cutting-edge sensor tech, not against the sensors of a backwater agri-colony that's not even near the borders. We should be traveling into the Kite's nest, or Virmire."

"The Captain can't be expected to baby-sit us through basic procedures, we're a crew of the best from two different fleets; it's a good sign that he trusts us to handle our own. And Eden Prime is a _fine_ testing ground, they have above average sensor systems because of the prothean ruins, the Alliance had a vested interest in guarding the planet. And besides, would _you_ go showing off your new prototype ship on the edge of Turian space? And the Sentry Omega cluster is just _filled_ with Pirate activity. Besides, do we really have big sensor arrays to guard against our closest allies?"

"Yes, you do." Stated Dr. Erad simply. "And only a few are from the days before we started getting along."

Kaiden continued to listen to the engineers bicker, with the occasional input of the Batarian doctor. The two of them were partners, helping Engineer Adams on the fourth deck. When they were on duty that is, right now there was a Hegemony engineering team running the ship.

Eventually, finished with his modest meal, Kaiden stood, walking towards the back of the ship, past the trapezoid pillar of the elevator shaft. Why the area around a rectangular elevator would be shaped that way, Kaiden would never know. Maybe it was a Batarian thing.

Kaiden passed the elevator, looking to the wall opposite. Two doors marked it, one leading into the mostly empty life support room, the other held space for off-duty crew members, just like most of the rest of this floor. He Turned, pausing.

Kaiden stood in front of the elevator, his eyes resting on the floor control. His eyes settled on the Cargo Deck button, and he pressed it on a hunch.

The Cargo bay was a large, empty room, a small armory built around the entrance, shelves with weapons on the far walls, workbenches for upgrades, modification and maintenance before him. On the Right side of the floor, next to the massive doors that would open for shuttle launch, was a firing range, four rows of targets, able to be pulled back to deploy a small simulation battlefield. Similar, though not as large, as the one they'd worked on at Arcturus prime. On the left side sat the Shuttle, a blue and white Kodiak model, a rectangular box with four an engine on every corner.

And at the bench, as he'd suspected, Kaiden saw James.

The bigger man was deep into his work, unspeaking. His Shotgun, some Batarian model, a Big, powerful weapon though, was open before him, and James seemed to be tinkering with a small modifier behind the barrel.

Some weapons experts modified their weapons with specialized ammunition and firing mechanisms, Kaiden knew, with some built to re-shape the bullets into armor-piercing rounds, others to cloak shots in fire or electrical charge. The common problems with these devices were that they were always temperamental, otherwise they'd have been implemented as standard-issue, and required constant maintenance, requiring any soldier who used such modifiers to know their weapon, and its inner workings, well enough to keep the device running smoothly, otherwise the modifier might malfunction, stopping the weapon from firing at all.

Vega appeared to be doing such modification now, and was so absorbed in his work he hadn't appeared to notice Kaiden. He must have come down to be alone, Kaiden knew at once. He hadn't showed much interest in being with the crew. Other than Navigator Presley, nobody appeared to have spoken with him since boarding. Not even EDI.

Kaiden paused. Not a single soul other than the two of them was in the Cargo bay, and nobody seemed liable to some down. This was a chance to talk, a chance to _show_ James he wasn't so alone on this ship. And yet, when Kaiden knew he should talk, he found his mouth dry, his knees stiff, and arms hanging at his sides like dumbbells. Kaiden wanted to speak, to walk beside, to clasp a hand on Vega's shoulder and talk, and yet he found his legs turning him about, leading him to the elevator, and that part of him that had called him brave in sullen quiet.

He rode the elevator upward, the confined space filled to bursting with his shame. It was as he lifted the lid off of his sleeper pod that he finally let the thoughts come in full, without censorship:

_What kind of man is it who lacks the confidence to talk to someone he'll put his life in the hands of?_

_[Quick note]_

Good news, I feel like I have some actual weight to give to the characters of Kaiden and Shepard. Vega is nice to use as a lightning rod for all the character problems that they can have. delayed posting the chapter because I usually prefer to post short chapters like this one in groups.


	10. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Ashley stepped slowly down the inclined path, walking past the entrance of the ancient bunker. The construct was a massive endeavor, a massive box the length of a Frigate with high ceilings. If it weren't for those pods the science team had pulled out of it, Ashley would have called it a hangar.

The open doorway sliding past her as she walked on, Gunnery chief Williams climbed the slope opposite the one she'd come down on, summit the small hill to see farmlands before her.

Eden Prime was, and had always been, mostly agricultural. That was how these people had made their livings for the last two and a half decades, on one of the few colonies older than Human intergalactic politics.

Her patrol brought Ashley through a small field, on a thin path between tall stalks of some Corn variant, whatever they could engineer to survive in this soil. Past the field was a wide ravine, leading uphill to the science team's camp. Past that, Ashley would loop out through a small forest of native trees, or something close to it, before coming back to the science camp to start the circuit over again walking to the bunker.

The Ravine was rocky, but the low grasses about the area were beautiful, and Ash didn't mind being slowed down. It wasn't like she had to rush anywhere. She stepped carefully from rock to rock as she climbed the stony stairway, making sure not to risk a slip. Her headset sparked momentarily before she heard Corporal Marcus Green's voice over radio "Chief Williams, I have a question."

Ashley rolled her eyes. Green was on station at the camp, he'd been pestering her about weapon mods. "What Corporal?" she responded with maybe a little more edge than was necessary

"So exactly how often do ammo modifiers require maintenance? Because I feel like I'll do a better job in action if my gun sets the targets on fire, some psychological warfare, you know?"

"Corporal, I'm not an expert in ammo mods, I don't know how incendiary rounds work, so how would I know how often they need to be calibrated? Leave it. Train with your biotics, it'd be a better use of your time."

"But chief, Please? I just think that-"

Green's protest was cut short by a sudden alert from command, it took a moment for him to be quiet as the communication started, but he was silent once he realized its importance. "We have enemy ships in Orbit! Fifteen to twenty vessels, ranging from frigate to Dreadnought in size, incoming towards Eden Prime. Cruisers Beijing, London, and Rio, pull to the outer system, do not engage, repeat, do not engage the enemy, we're out gunned, calling for reinforcements now. Planetary bases deploy fighters immediately, stay in-atmosphere, repeat, in atmosphere, we can't take them on, but we can stop them landing. Frigates Fallujah, Hastings, Midway, Lexington and Gettysburg, enter the atmosphere. I want all ships either too close to the planet for those cruisers' guns, or on the edge of the solar system, A-sap. Ground teams, spread out, If they get onto the surface, I want them wading through Guerrilla strikes at every turn. Stay in small groups, hit them and run."

Ashley was almost frozen for a moment. An enemy dreadnought was in orbit. There was only one mission an army would send that powerful a ship on. Invasion and conquest. Her pace quickened to a run, racing towards the science camp, to the marines stationed there, and on patrol around it. They were going to need as many men and women as they could get.

[Author's notes, the usual.]

Well this chapter turned out short.

Whatever, that's Ash, I'm sorry, Ashley fans, but I don't think I'm going to have her reading a lot of poetry. Not because I'm changing her character, but because it's just a very low story quality-to-research effort ratio, it'd take me a lot of time to find the right poetry, and I just don't think it'll happen I'm sorry.

The stories should be colliding soon, in case nobody saw that coming.

Part of me feels like I should have had Ash appear before the attack, but I already had trouble throwing together Alenko's last chapter because I couldn't think of what to make happen for the longest time, and any Idyllic scenery chapter on Eden Prime would both feel and be completely pointless except to make you meet the division on defense, but I think that I'm getting at that fairly well. Or at least well enough.


	11. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

"Captain Anderson, Communications specialist Jella has requested your presence in the communications blister."

Anderson immediately stood from his desk. The Captain's cabin on the Normandy was surprisingly big, a raised area by the door for his desk, and a lowered area for bedding beneath a window into space.

"Has she stated why?" he asked.

"She has not," answered EDI, "But she said it was of the Utmost urgency, and also asked that Jeff increase our acceleration to maximum speed, a request he took to with glee."

Anderson rolled his eyes slightly. No harm in it really, if Joker pushed the Normandy to her limits, then it made for a better test of what the ship could do. But he had to wonder what Specialist Jella was thinking. "Tell her I'll meet her in the war room."

The Darkly-lit room was empty when Anderson entered, waiting silently for his eyes to adjust. Anderson took a few steps into the room before he saw motion in the corner of his eye. Turning, he saw the Batarian specialist in the communications blister. She started when she caught sight of him. "Captain!" She said, fumbling with the words. "I'm sorry to call you down here sir, but we received a message from Eden Prime." She looked at him with all four eyes, and Anderson was surprised to see fear in them. "They've come under attack."

Anderson paused. This was only a single Frigate. If the defense forces already present couldn't deal with this attack, then there wouldn't be that much the Normandy could do. But that didn't really matter, they had to try. "Play me the message." He said finally, turning upward to address EDI. "Inform the crew. I want us to enter the system ready to fight." He then set a hand on Jella's shoulder. "Good job, you put me in charge of the situation as quickly as possible, as well as having us get to Eden Prime sooner. You did everything right Specialist."

She seemed not to hear him for a moment, watching the projectors as EDI started the message before she responded. "Thank you sir, I just hope it will be enough."

The projection started with a crack, and suddenly Anderson saw two-dimensional footage, taken from a helmet camera by the look of it. Whoever was shooting the footage was standing in some sort of camp. There were a few prefab buildings strewn about, and some equipment that looked expensive, if not the most cutting-edge.

A voice boomed through the speakers, presumably whoever was wearing the helmet. "This is Corporal Markus Green, Two-twelve, second Frontier division, We are under attack, repeat, we are under attack! Turian ships are in orbit of Eden Prime, Command is unresponsive, since they bombed Constant. They're landing troops all over." He stopped talking for a moment as the view shifted quickly about 90 degrees to the right, Anderson could make out two soldiers, one holding a handgun of some sort, the resolution was too low for Anderson to recognize it, and the second seemed to be just arriving, an Avenger in her arms.

He picked back up his distress call quickly. "There are troops coming at us from the south, reports are coming in from half the planet, landing parties, commandos, tanks, bomber strikes. The fleet has retreated to the edge of the system, we need help!" he stopped for a moment, looking out. On the hillside, Anderson saw large shapes, too big to be Turian, hefting guns as they charged down the slope, opening fire. At their distant range the weapons, shotguns apparently, didn't do much damage. Anderson saw the corporal raise a Katana shotgun, taking a potshot that did even less then the enemies' weapons. Beside him he would hear the avenger roar to life, shooting sky-blue bolts into one of the soldiers charging toward them.

The second soldier's weapon was apparently rapid-fire, as its smaller shots were as numerous as the avenger's, though less damaging. The Green's gun raised up, so that Anderson saw the tip of one finger gripped around the trigger, and then the screen went blue all around, and suddenly they were in the face of one of the enemies, who stumbled back with the impact first of the Corporal, then of a shotgun blast.

The Corporal turned, taking three shots at an assailant a few feet away. He ejected his clip as the attacker fell to the ground. Suddenly, Anderson saw the world shoot past as the helmet struck the ground face-first. To his credit, Green didn't give up. He rolled onto his back, and Anderson briefly saw his arm reach out for his weapon. He never touched it. As the Corporal looked up, he saw his attacker in the face.

The alien was big, at least eight feet tall, perhaps more. His legs were double-jointed, and the hands that gripped the tubular shotgun had only six fingers between them. The face was low on the head, beneath a massive forehead plate. The twin eyes were spaced apart on the alien's head, like those of a cow or mule. Behind the massive forehead plate was a mountainous hump of a back, stretching far above the creature's head. The Krogan held its weapon out, Pointed the barrel to Corporal Green's head, and the footage broke to static.

[Author's notes.]

Well people do have to die on Eden prime.

Anyways, no Traynor, because I personally don't feel like I know her that well. Besides, I needed to increase the Batarian presence on the ship.

I told you Berserkers meant exactly what you thought it did.

So the Normandy is obviously not going to take on a dreadnought, but it'll partake in some asskicking. The only thing you will know for sure, is that I like the name Spirit's Hammer too much to blow it up. Seriously, if you think about it in relation to Turian religion than it comes out as pretty freaking badass. I wish that I'd given that name to the dreadnought.


	12. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

"Go down to the spaceport and secure those pods." The orders had rung out in the silent briefing room, the command coming from a projection of Saren Arterius. "Leave no witnesses, No one is to know your mission."

Garrus's thoughts were still on those orders as his shuttle struck the dirt on Eden Prime. Nihlus was already moving, his eviscerator shotgun sweeping back and forth, scanning. Garrus and Lantar came out beside him, hefting Phaeston rifles as they watched the hillside. They'd landed in a small field, their shuttle crushing tall green plants as it landed. The plants were thin towers, with bulbous ends covered in leaves.

Nihlus's voice came over the intercom through Garrus's helmet "Right, Spaceport is about two clicks to the East, we'll be moving through fields like this one, pretty much just farmland. This side of the spaceport was left mostly alone, with the berserker forces being deployed all around. With the Krogan being supplemented by our commandos, the local marines will be plenty busy for us to go in uncontested. Once we secure the objective, the shuttles come in for pick-up. Any Questions?"

_Do we kill on sight?_ Garrus wanted to ask, but stayed silent. He knew Nihlus wouldn't be any happier than he was about the whole situation.

The fields were abandoned, and Garrus need only listen to be reminded why. The sound of gunshots soared through the air from what felt like all directions. This field was the eye of the hurricane.

The three of them hurried along a dirt road through the farmland, watching as much as possible in all directions for any sign of activity. They needn't have bothered, whatever marines that had been in this area, and chances were high those were a precious few, had left to help the fight against the invaders already.

The Spaceport sat ahead, twin buildings, two-floored and slopped to form a valley between. They twin angled sides were marked on their outer edges with multiple landing pads, all of which sat empty. Through the central chasm jutted a railway, running through the port, allowing travelers to move beyond, board or disembark here.

Once they were within half a mile, Nihlus had the three soldiers duck into the tall plants, staying unseen until they were almost upon the port. It wasn't necessarily needed, as not a soul was visible from outside, but the caution only slowed them down slightly. When they came close, the team simply climbed the steps to an outer platform. No alarms sounded, no guns flared to life around them, no marines called out warnings. The outer edge was deserted.

Garrus took point from the landing pad inward, his Phaeston raised to fire at a moment's notice. The main area was built about the railway station, with open areas above, three bridges crossing the gap, and no less than two separate platforms on each side down at the rail path. Garrus ducked into cover behind storage crates as he entered. "Enemies spotted, avoiding contact."

Three marines stood guard across the bridge, one held a sub machine gun, with a sniper rifle on his back, while the other two carried assault rifles. They seemed on-edge, a sensible reaction to standing guard over ancient Stasis Pods while their planet was being invaded.

Lantar and Nihlus weren't far behind, but they lacked adequate cover to venture out from the stairwell, unless they intended to fight lying on their stomachs. Garrus would have to act alone. Switching his Phaeston for his Raptor, Garrus lined up the sights on the leftmost target, activating his Omni-tool on his left hand as he did, the weapon balanced on the back of Garrus's wrist so that he could aim his palm at the soldiers. "Shot Ready Major, requesting leave to engage."

"Granted." Returned Nihlus, his voice thick, displeased. Garrus couldn't blame him, there wasn't supposed to be anyone here. Killing mercs, privateers, raiders… that was different. They were criminals and murderers. But taking out a garrison? They hadn't done anything to make this fight concern them.

The omni-tool flashed, and an arc of electricity bounded into the first soldier, his shields shattering in an instant. It was as secondary bolts arced from the marine's shields that Garrus planted his first shot, a clean impact into the soldier's head. Never felt a thing. Garrus turned immediately, sending another shot into the middle marine, another headshot, a quick death. The third marine was moving when the sights came on him. The third shot was poorly aimed; Garrus was pushing himself too much. It hit him in the shoulder, a painful, slow wound that would leave him bleeding to death without medi-gel. Garrus sent a fourth shot into the man's throat before he hit the ground, and, after a moment's aiming, a mercy shot to the head. "All Clear."

Lantar and Nihlus came from behind him, hurrying past the bodies to check the platform ahead, and Garrus followed.

The Flat platform overlooked a small depression in the ground ahead, a vibrant green environment filled with odd, bulbous floating creatures. Atop the flat metal expanse, were laid out a small sea of prothean artifacts.

Each was a lone, tubular object, bigger than a Krogan, held off of the ground by a small wheeled platform of human construct placed below. There were at least two dozen pods, maybe thirty in all spread across the area forming low-walled pathways between, Awaiting pickup from the landing pads to the platform's left and right. The three soldiers walked in between the pods, scanning the area.

As Garrus walked between two pods, he went to one knee, examining one of them. The top was some sort of dark, opaque glass, there seemed no way to see through it.

Suddenly, Garrus's head snapped about to a sound from the other side of the pods, his gun raising even as the Human's words came out, panicked and fearful. "Don't shoot, please! We're unarmed!"

Three humans were standing among the pods, two men and a woman. All three wore matching white uniforms, no armor, no weapons. They were probably archeologists, the team that had uncovered these pods. Luck had not been on their side. Neither was Nihlus.

For a few tense moments, Garrus thought he was going to give the order to shoot. His weapon was aimed, safety off, but these three weren't soldiers, weren't armed, and hadn't even tried to hide, surrendering as quickly as they could manage. The three Turians were aiming at point-blank range. They were so close that the scope on Garrus's rifle was a hindrance, not an asset in aiming, easily within range for Nihlus's shotgun too. It would have been over in less than half a second.

Until Nihlus lowered his gun. "Go humans." He said aloud. "Run West through the corn fields." He gestured the way the three of them had come. "You stay here and you're as good as dead."

One scientist, the one who'd talked earlier, spoke again, no less afraid now than he seemed when they'd found him. "What if we're attacked? We have no weapons, we'll be slaughtered if they catch us-"

Garrus raised his gun and fired into the empty air above him, silencing the human with the noise. He spoke quietly, praying to the spirits that they wouldn't call him on this. "He said run, human." He tried to add a layer of disgust into his voice, to frighten them. "You're safer taking your chances out there than you are taking them with me."

The three were running before he got the last word out, moving so quickly that Garrus wondered if they even saw the bodies of the marines lying where they'd fallen up the stairs.

Nihlus simply looked to him, as he turned on his comm, giving Garrus a nod and an appreciative smile. "Open Palm, this is Specialist Kyrik, we have the cargo, repeat, we have the cargo. Send the shuttle to our current location, let's get these stasis pods out of here."

[Notes, YAY!]

Dear god did this one take awhile. Not because it was overly hard to write (Took some time because of that too though) but because I started school on the 20th, been making snail's pace progress since then.

Some of you might be wondering why this says chapter 11, there was a bit of a fiasco there. I posted _A _chapter 11 awhile back, but took it down within maybe 24 hours. I'd rushed it, and it just wasn't up to the standards I try to keep, as well as switching to Joker's perspective for no reason whatsoever, and generally being a pointless chapter. I'll make it and Anderson bit in a few chapters if I can make it consequential.

Now to the chapter. Did you guys like the Garrus-shooty bit? I enjoyed the challenge of walking the line between making Garrus "Evil" by making him remorseless about shooting human marines, or by shooting too many, or making him a pussy by making him unwilling to kill. Niether of these things is in-character for him, and neither works for the story, but I feel like I found a pretty solid balance. And yes, they did land in a corn field. Re-read that bit about the plants, that's me describing a corn plant from the eyes of an alien who's never seen a corn plant before.

So I'm falling somewhat behind in my classes, so my writing isn't going to pick up any time soon. Not "I'll never write again I don't have the time" falling behind, but bad enough that there isn't a chance in hell this story will be done by 2013, and if it'll be done by the end of the school year is an unknown.

Oh yeah, I also turned 16 today. No I don't have my permit yet.

Also, because writing the notes takes less time than writing dialogue and stuff, I'm going to go into little details like what weapons are made by who in the author's notes from now on in semi-codex things. If those go well I might do some history via codex, but I'm going to avoid it, because it'll be more interesting if presented in-story.

I'm also feeling sad that my favorite character won't be appearing for a few more missions, but I can't do anything about that without really forcing it, so I'll manage.


	13. An apology from Toastasaurus Rex

I guess the good news is: I'm still alive, I've just been in Skyrim for the last month and a half.

The bad news is: Without the Foe is over.

I lost that energy, that constant want to focus on and refine the story, that energy about the Mass Effect world, the energy that drove this story. I've been sitting on 70% finished chapter 12 almost the whole time since I stopped posting.

The only way I can see me getting back that excitement is if bioware releases the next ME game and it's kickass, and gets good enough reaction to get me to buy it in the first place, but on the off chance I get that drive again to write Without the Foe, I'll re-post the whole thing I guess, but It's, for all intents and purposes, over.

I spent the last month building up the courage just to say it's over. I'm sad about the conclusion, but it's how my life played out. I won't begrudge anyone who hates me for it.

I think I'm going to try and make another story, I'm on a Skyrim kick right now, so I guess I'll try, but It's not going up until I've written at least the first story. Might get to other ideas later, but two months ago I'd have said without hesitation that I'd finish Without the Foe, and look where that's got me.

I'm going to make one last post after this: the spoilers and summary page, me trying to at least explain what I was trying to do with the story. Read it if you like, if you want to hold out hope, then I'm not going to deny you that.

Genuinely apologetic,

Parker James Dixon-Word, AKA Toastasaurus Rex.


	14. Spoilered

Spoilers: Without the Foe

I guess the beginning is where I have to start: The original idea I had for Without the Foe was really the summary on the story: What would have happened without the Reapers? I first had to ask how, and my answer was: liara's time capsule. Not Liara's specifically, but that of another race, one received by the protheans. This gives the Protheans the nessicary knowledge and technology to finish the crucible, perfecting it in the final days of the war to kill only the reapers, their leaders having refused to trigger it until it wouldn't destroy the empire, inadvertently dooming their people and their civilization to Reaperification.

Because of the capsule, the Protheans never uplift any races seen in the modern cycle, and their war with the reapers also I later decided would have been witnessed sort of by the Batarians, causing huge panic in their primitive society and allowing for a slave revolt to remove the caste system (Look, It's a lot harder to justify them as good guys if they do slavery, okay?) as well as making Quarian cizilization deeply afraid of the Perseus veil, with legends about it being an evil creature that wanted to smother all life. While the superstition died with time, the Quarians would never leave the Perseus veil until forced to thousands of years later.

Most importantly for this galaxy though: The Salarians are first to discover the citadel because Asari never get uplifted by the protheans. First contact by the Salarians is to the Volus, who, while they align with the Slaarians, never form a council with them. Rachni contact sends the Salarians into a panic, and they uplift dozens of races, Asari, Krogan, Hannar, Drell (the Drell homeworld runs out of resources still, but the Drell are already part of the galactic community and thus simply evacuate) Elcor etc. (Not the turians, I'll get there.) They then begin their war against the territorial rachni, decidedly being the instagators. Eventually though, an Asari ship that crashes behind enemy lines accidentally establishes diplomatic contact. Skip a few decades, and the Rachni, while mostly solitary, form half the "head council" alongside the Salarians, while the other races each get a council seat, even though they really hold very little power. Keep in mind that the Volus, Salarians and Rachni are the only races to reach spaceflight on their own at this point, but the Volus are still minor councilors because the Salarians and Rachni are so much more powerful.

Batarian contact goes actually better than you'd expect, they're strong-armed into becoming a council race. But the Volus are still unhappy, and eventually, upon their discovery of the Turians, secede from council space. The Salarians try to beat the crap out of them, but get repelled by Turian forces, who also reached spaceflight independently, but are happy to receive modern galactic technology from the Volus, and for a join government with them.

As you can expect, the Salarians, who pretty much control the known galaxy, weren't looking too hot as leaders. Soon enough, the Batarians jump ship, and the already weakened Salarian fleet fails to stop them too. The final straw is when the krogan rebel, and while they are allowed to secede, the Salarians release the genophage as a warning and a threat to anyone else who tries to abandon the citadel council. Regardless of the devastation it wreaks on the krogan, it holds the council together enough for them to regain their strength.

Quarians only enter the scene at the close of the Geth rebellions, when the newly-formed flotilla flees their space, becoming the first Quarians to leave the veil. They come out in batarian space, and end up running into pirates, whom they promptly exchange a wave of fire with before running back towards the relay. Geth ships then arrive, but curiously only attack the pirates. They then open communtications with the Flotilla, the first of many steps that eventually lead to Geth-Quarian peace, the two races now have equal rights and citizenship throughout Quarian space. This alliance does end up motivating the rest of the galaxy to be less AI-wary that they otherwise would have been, but they're still not openly "Hey guys, AIs are cool dudes!" the Geth-Quarian civilization begins contact with outside races, but for the most part remains within the veil, staying the isolated technological powerhouse of the galaxy. These technical expertise make Quarian technitians extremely valuable throughout the galaxy (Not Geth techs usually, again, the galaxy isn't totally pro-AI)

Humans come onto the scene at the same date they do in ME1, shanxi is not the human garrision the Turians captured, but the site where Ashley's grandfather negotiated a historic treaty 90% through charades. Her family is considered heroic mostly, but some down talk them as being "destined for the diplomats, not the marines".

The Batarians and Humans quickly align, sharing technology and weapons, allowing humanity to expand to encompass almost as much territory as the Turians in only a few decades. The Vol-Turian Hierarchy enters a brief war with the Humans when their territories reach a border, that's where Anderson and Benjamin Shepard served together, some of the first graduates of the then-new N7 program. Hannah "Shepard eventually" was XO on a ship and also served at this time.

Jonathan "I never decided what his actual last name was but it was going to come up at some point" Shepard was born in Vancouver, the prologue explained this, the only family he ever knew was a girl he thinks was his older sister, he doesn't remember what happened to her. The first man he killed was a gang-banger who pulled a gun on him, a few years older than he was. Shepard doesn't remember exactly how, but he knows that by the end of a few moments, he'd taken the kid's gun and shot him with it. A rival gang picked him up immediately. He betrayed them when they were horribly assaulting a woman in the street, shot a few and got them both to the police station, testified in exchange for a full pardon. Bengamin Shepard adopted him at age 12, and raised Jonathan alongside his two older kids, one son, one daughter. He legally got his last name changed at age 13, and remains close to his adopted family.

And now to the actual story of Without the Foe:

Saren is trying to get the Prothean technology because the hierarchy thinks it might be a massive find, something that might give them a huge edge. He's not actually trying to take over Eden Prime, contrary to appearences, but he just needs the pods, which contain a platoon of prothean elites. Yes, and Javik.

Shep's team and balak's were going to land separately, balak and his group go after pods, shep find survivors, balak calls for back up when he finds Garrus Nihlus and Lantar holding them away from the spaceport, so shep puts Kaiden in command while he runs off, mentioning Nihlus' line "I'll move faster on my own. So Kaiden leads Jenkins (Who was _not_ going to die) and Vega (Who I actually also need to say was _not_ going to die) and they find Ash, last surviving soldier around. Not sure how the rest would play on Eden Prime, but Garrus and co get away with all but a few pods, balak's team looses half its number to berserkers, who Shepard and EDI note have no clan markings, appearing to be Juveniles who never joined a clan.

So Cerberus, which in this is the Alliance's space CIA, lead by Director Harper (TIM, except not, well not The Illusive Man) steps in, the pods were going to their cell and the attack is their territory. Normandy gets temporarily transferred into Cerberus command, much to the batarians displeasure. They first go to Sur'Kesh, to the STG base from ME3 to see if the Salarians can identify the pods. Saren attacks and tries to steal the pods on Sur'Kesh, but when he orders Nihlus's team to attack a town as a distraction, specifically trying to kill innocents, they turn on him and try to stop him from getting the pods. Saren's brother, who leads the pod retrieval effort, personally kills Nihlus and Lantar, prompting Garrus to be all ME2 angry at him. Garrus gets captured by Shep, but not killed because Shep saw him take out a couple Turian soldiers. Mordin Padok and Maeleon were going to have a cameo, and Kaiden was going to end up with one of their Locust SMGs, Shep remarks on how wonderful a gun those things are and orders him to keeps it. Kirahee, who was leading the STG guards that were there just because Human/Batarian-Salarian relations aren't great, though the prothean tech no doubt makes them a little better.

They then go to the Citadel to explain themselves to the council, show them their prisoner as proof the Turians are attacking, kirahee joins the team to "represent Council interests." Shepard has them all go to lunch as a team building exercise, specifically choosing a place that does human food only to make the human teammates work with the alien ones to foster companionship. Kirahee remarks on Shep's ingenuity.

Next stop is Tuchanka, to meet a contact of Shepard's about the Berserker krogan (Spoiler alert, the contact is Wrex, because I didn't have a better way to include him, and they're already headed to Tuchanka, so I have no excuse not to.) short version is that he points them to korolus and O'Keer.

They go there, it plays out largely like the ME2 mission, except Grunt comes out on Korolus and kills O'Keer himself, goes with Shep because Shep shows no fear and beats him up with biotics. Grunt is my favorite character, so he'd be doing lots of things from that point on.

Team then flies to respond to an attack on Virmire, get their asses kicked, Saren uses the Virmire beacon before flying off. Garrus is wounded, face scars as well as his arm being screwed up. Tali comes aboard with legion, EDI is fascinated. They get Garrus a cybernetic arm and a Widow sniper rifle, and there is much rejoicing. They chase Saren, after a bit of a healing hiatus, to Feros, where Liara T'soni is studying the prothean ruins. Long story short (again) the Thorian absorbs not Shiala, but Liara, they kill it, get her out but a Liara clone has already given Saren the Cipher. Liara then opens the three Prothean pods on Normandy, revealing Javik and two of his crew, both of who Javik tries to kill on site because they're indoctrinated. Javik does the telepathic thingy to make Shepard understand the Reapers and the threat they were, as Javik doesn't know if the crucible succeeded or not, and neither do his crew. Shep plays a gambit on the indoctrinated, pretending to be sympathetic to them to get them to tell him exactly what their other crewmates would (and/or had) told Saren: That they should go open the citadel relay to bring in the Reapers, "great weapons built by the Protheans" that they could use to control the galaxy.

Shepard is not amused. They get to the Citadel to find Saren and about 40 Prothean Elites have seized the entire presidium and the council chambers, so they divide into teams and spread out. It's during this time that Garrus gets Tali to play bait to drawn Saren's brother out, she relays to him the message "Debt repaid" before Garrus blows his head off with his Widow. Javik, Grunt and Shep storm the Council's tower, taking down several Protheans and Turian commandos. They have their boss fight with Saren as he opens the relay… and nothing happens, because the reapers are all dead.

Story ends with the team leaving the citadel, and Miranda Lawson's first appearance as Director Harper gives her orders to plan the Normandy's destruction, she's shocked, saying that Shepard Anderson and their crew had done everything right and that they were great assets to Cerberus. Then Harper finishes by saying "I have my reason Lawson, if Shepard is what we need him to be, you won't be able to stop him."

So book 2 I hadn't planned as much yet, but it'd start quickly with the deaths of Balak (Ash was going to take his harpoon gun (Oh yeah, Balak has a Kishock) and be very affected by his death) , Anderson and probably vega during a Cerberus attack, with Shep ending up in command of Normandy. They then shoot about putting together the pieces of the puzzle, chased by "Lawson" (Yes, last name. Who else does that happen to?), an her team of Cerberus operative, including Taylor, a not quite as completely off her rocker Jack, and kai Leng, who's not going to be a space ninja, just an assassin/sniper. He's the one who kills Balak.

Grunt's Rite was going to happen at some point. No new team mates in book 2, it'd be more focused on the ones already there. Shep also kinda falls for Miranda, feelings mutual, both brilliant leaders and strategists and such. Mara Jade syndrome. Ish.

Climax has Shepard and team storming Cronos station, with Miranda kind of helping them, but not as in fighting alongside them helping. Ash gets to kill Kai Leng with balak's gun and say "That was for Balak you son of a bitch." Shep ends up in Tim's office alone with the guy, who explains that his whole reason for action was because he knew the Reapers were coming, and he needed someone "Forged in fire" to lead the galaxy to stop them. Note that I say "The galaxy" not "Youmanity". TIM in this isn't quite as dismissive of the value of the rest of the galaxy. Shepard laughs in his face he's so surprised, and is quite reasonably pissed off that TIM killed so many people over a threat that's been dead 50,000 years. So he shoots TIM, the station explodes and Shepard and Miranda escape with faked deaths. Deaths Harper had already set up because he knew he needed Shepard to be able to fight the Reapers on his own terms, and that Lawson was his best agent to help. So they disappear to the citadel, everyone thinks they're dead, and Kaiden kind of assumes Shep's role as the leader.

Garrus goes and, since he can't return to the hierarchy after betraying Saren, lives on Rannoch with Tali. I was thinking about a side story about a Geth-Quarian civil war set after the second book.

Liara might become Shadow Broker, with javik as her assistant most likely. He's involved.

So yeah, that was my ideas, my piece. I fell like I've got nothing left to say on it, even though there's so much more there. Damn summaries.


End file.
